§ Baroness Anelay of St Johnsasked Her Majesty's Government:
What research they have undertaken to determine how many homeless persons living on the streets have at some stage been discharged from, or have chosen to leave, the Armed Forces [HL879]
§ The Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker)No specific research has been undertaken. However, the Social Exclusion Unit's report on Rough Sleeping (published in July 1998) highlighted that repeated studies had found that between a quarter and one-fifth of rough sleepers had been in the services at some stage. More recently, a non-representative survey of around 1,500 single homeless people who were in contact with agencies in one week in November 2002 found that a small minority of single homeless people had a forces background (5 per cent).